Goodbye Oudtshoorn

I thoroughly enjoyed lunch at Die Smitswinkel on Sunday, the big complaints on TripAdvisor were slow service and being left standing like a prat at the sign that asks customers to wait to be seated, so I found an empty table sat down and ordered a beer as soon as I arrived, sure the service is slow but I was in no rush to go anywhere else and when the cabaret of watching the customers and the staff dancing amongst the tables paled I had a book with me. The food was good, the beer cold and it was cool during the hottest part of the day. The place is decorated with road memorabilia especially old Harley Davidsons and as ornaments in a restaurant I think they have at last found their niche.

Hog ornament.

Tomorrow I will be leaving here and it is time, I have exhausted my list of things to see and do so tomorrow is the start of new adventures, so this morning while the car was getting valeted to hide the evidence of my off-road travels I went for a final walk and visited the water tower on the hillside above the B&B.

The western water tower.

You can just see the Eastern water tower on the hill top, brilliant walking country even I could not get lost

Tonight I am having a farewell dinner at the Queen's Hotel (where Saga Louts stay when in town) I decided to push the boat out and have something other than steak or salad.

New Year's Eve - Temperature 36C

Stompies isn't that a nicer word than butts. 

Well it has been a busy few days and one thing I have learned is that the brakes on the Mean Machine work very well, I went on a ghost walk tour with Ailsa in Prince Albert on Friday which finished at 8:15pm so it was just getting dark and I had a 120km drive back to Oudtshoorn, I was just getting into my stride travelling at the speed limit of 100kph when a Kudu minced across the road in front of me, the brakes stopped me hitting the animal but from  distance of about 12 feet it makes you realise how large these animals are.
I have been for a couple of local walks and today's was up to what I presume is the water tank on the western hillside above town, it was good to get some hills in before my leg muscles turn into knotted string but it was a little warm, thank goodness for the pool back at the B&B.
Yesterday was a bit of a fun admin day with visits to the farmers markets in George and Sedgefield, the latter is the best but I will have to learn how to use the video on my camera before my next visit to record the guys on point duty outside the market. I picked up some cheese, olives and pickled onions so lunch was a ploughman's. I also managed to get into the barbers before she shut at 12:30 and had an exorbitantly priced haircut for 50 Rand about £3.00 after that I booked a Stand up Paddleboarding (SUP) lesson for next Friday and then ignoring the option to go to Hoekwil for another portion of the best carrot cake in the whole world before wending my way home, I didn't want to enjoy myself too much!
The other day I went out with Joyrides which is similar to the bike-rafting trip I did in Tenerife but this time they dropped us off at the top of the Swartberg Pass and then we were on our own to make our way back to base. The trip down the pass was fun being all downhill but still a bit dodgy with the rough dirt surface, the hard work was the road trip back after hitting the tarmac, a total journey of 54kms and now I walk like John Wayne and don't sit down much either.
I have tried a number of restaurants in town and most are OK but the Santa Fe Spur is definitely the best for steaks in fact for all the grilled meat and at still less than a tenner for steak, chips, two beers and a generous tip how can you go wrong. I had a weird Spag Bol at one place, I think it was made with pure tomato puree and a huge amount of herbs, I certainly will not be trying that again.
Well time for lunch, I am going to try a padstall on the road out of town called Die Smitswinkle, it has received Marmite reviews on TripAdvisor so that should be fun.

As close as I could get to what I presume is a water tank/tower.

Looking east from the western water tower if you look carefully you can see the eastern water tower which is on the hillside above the B&B.

Xmas in the Little Karoo

What is going on? yesterday I searched the Satellite TV schedule for both The Great Escape and The Magnificent Seven and neither were being shown it was all lame recent films that were being shown, instead I went to visit the Meiringspoort Waterfall all kitted out in my walking boots which were definitely necessary to negotiate the rocky path to the falls only to find that they were not required footwear for the crowd if kids who were running up and down the path and having fun in the pool at the base of the waterfall, any water feature is a magnet for the locals in this desert area. I spent the rest of the day chilling by the pool at Earthbound and I will be doing more of the same today.

The Meiringspoort Pass

My impressions of South Africa are that it is a very Christian country so I was surprised to find that, petrol stations and their attached supermarkets were open on Xmas day I thought that everywhere would be closed and today a lot of shops and the bottle stores are open.

Tomorrow is going to be a cultural day visiting museums.

A first for me.

I know as an Englishman I should be ashamed but today was the first time I have ever been to a cricket match. I have seen it on TV, played at school and even once in the army when my squadron were desperate for an eleventh man, I thought that I knew the rules but when I saw one player caught 4 times in the space of an over and not declared out I had to ask someone why not, only to be told that ball had struck the ground immediately after being hit - how can you see that sort of thing from 100 metres away, I think I will stick to rugby.
Actually I enjoyed the day at the Recreation Ground in Oudtshoorn where the local team Warriors took on Cape Town Cobras, it was a real family occasion where people bring chairs, sunshades of one form or another, refreshments (beer) and picnics/barbecues or Braai as they are called locally and believe it or not the entrance fee was £1.20. The Rec is right in town so when the players went in for lunch a large part of the crowd, myself included headed out of the ground for something other than the offerings of the onsite burger vans.

Nearly everyone hides from the midday sun.

All shook up.

Today I went on a road trip that was recommended to me by a guy I met yesterday in De Rust, he didn't tell me that the Prince Albert Pass was another dirt road which in places was nearly too much for the ground clearance of the Mean Machine but she managed it fine more than can be said for me after 80kms of rattling around in the oolu I needed a beer and lo and behold Tiffany's sold Castle Lager on draught and the burgers were on special offer, wonderful.

MM at the start of the Prince Albert Pass.

An unexpected find in the middle of nowhere, these South Africans seem to have a naughty seaside postcard sense of humour.

I have not watched much TV over here nor listened too much to the radio so I do not know how much advertising is going on for Xmas but it does seem very low key, I have noticed a few Xmas tree stickers on shop windows and the occasional Xmas song in the supermarket but that is about it which is a relief after the way things are these days in the UK, why do we have to import all that is bad from the US? Halloween, Black Friday etc. Sorry, mini rant over.

My room at Earthbound B&B

Outdoor living area with beer fridge.

Marie's (my host) nod to Xmas

My Xmas will be mostly outdoors and I will report more with pictures soon.

Words only.

This really is a lovely little town and wherever I go people want to talk, I know it is not my magnetic personality it is just the normal way of life here. I have visited all the antique shops in the town, the guy I met last time has sold out to a lady who admits that she caters to the feminine side of the trade but that did not stop her chatting to me for half an hour and guiding me to the other dealers in town as she said they are all selling different lines of antiques and all making money so really there is no competition.

I have now been here three nights and tried different restaurants each night, tonight's' was the most expensive for ostrich steak and a bottle of wine but that came in at half the price of a decent meal at a Brunning & Price place. I have now done all the explorations of the town so I went out for a waterfall walk to Rust & Vrede which I believe is rest and peace in Afrikaans, it was not a challenging walk and the waterfall was only a pale comparison to Aber Falls but it was a good experience to be there early and have the place to myself for half an hour, the only problem was that the waterfall was upsun so none of the photographs were any good.

Well all the admin is now sorted so from tomorrow the adventures begin again hopefully with some photos to show for it.

Earthbound again.

Back on the dirt, heading 

for the Swartberg.

No barriers on this track.

If you look carefully you can see the track up the Swarzberg Pass.

The journey from Ladismith yesterday was via Calitzdorp then back onto the dirt roads and over the Swartberg Pass to Prince Albert. As soon as I hit the city limits there was a sign pointing to the Bush Pub and it was 12:30 so it would have been rude not to have a look, it turned out to be a good choice and two and a half hours later I drifted down to the Travellers Rest B&B where I met Jude & Bryan who had recently moved over here from the Wirral to run their own business. Yesterday evening I had an execrable meal at the Gallery cafe (I will not say anymore but the line to TripAdvisor was glowing) Anyway I had a beer and a good chat with my hosts afterwards to calm down, they are a lovely couple and I can recommend staying at their gaff if you are ever in the area.

Today saw me drive over to Oudtshoorn on tarmac to my home for the next 16 days, Earthbound. This is the third time I have stayed here and I cannot fault the place, the owner Marie's attention to detail is amazing, I personally would class this place as 5 star.

After all my off road journeys I found that this car is not dust proof so i dropped it off at a valeting service whilst I went to collect some beers for the fridge and a full valet inside and out cost me the princely sum of £6.00 including a JB sized tip.

This is going to be the chill out part of the trip so my reports may be a little less frequent but Oudtshoorn itself is quite centrally located and visits to the coast, the desert and all sorts of other locations are all on the cards.